North American Arms - .22 Magnum Pug

Update: 05/05/2012

I did some reading on the NAA forum and came across a thread
with a link to a company called Concealment Specialites, LLC.
I liked what I saw and decided to take a chance on a holster for the Pug .22 WMR.
At $14.95 shipped to my door, it was worth a try.

I hit the range this morning to rack up some practice time with my Springfield XD9
pistol. I've got a FS class coming later this year and need to work on a
few things. Once I was finished with the XD9, I broke out my PACT chronograph and
set it up, 10' from the edge of the shooting bench. I ran 6 different
factory loads over the chronograph this morning with four of them being .22 WMR
from the Pug and two others using my range buddy's XD .45ACP 5" pistol.
(The velocities of both cartridges are fairly close to each other.)

Two of the four .22 WMR loads I shot were chronographed previously. I
wanted to use them as a benchmark to ensure everything was working as expected.
The PACT ran great....and the Winchester Super-X 40 gr FMJ loads shot this
morning ran just 13 FPS faster than the previous test and the old CCI JHP was
+29 FPS. Both are close enough for me given different temps and air
density between the two shooting sessions. If I had the ammo to spare, I
would always chronograph five groups of 5 shots for each cartridge and average
that data. I can do this if someone wants to donate the
ammo.....otherwise, you're stuck with my "limited budget" method.

I copied the table from the previous page and placed it here, adding the new
loads. It is easier to contrast and compare the information gathered from
the two sessions when one can view all the data at once. I've also
averaged in the data for the two loads that were repeated this morning.

Std Deviation

Extreme Spread

Velocity

Hornady 45 gr TRXCritical Defense

17.6 FPS

42.7 FPS

805 FPS

CCI Maxi-MAG40 gr TMJ

18.7 FPS

45.8 FPS

857 FPS

WinchesterSuper-X 40 gr JHP

40.8 FPS

85.8 FPS

864 FPS

WinchesterSuper-X 40 gr FMJ

20.2 FPS

49.5 FPS

882 FPS

** CCI 37 gr JHP

31.0 FPS

72.0 FPS

949 FPS

The main reason for this trip to the range (in regards to shooting the Pug) was
to try out the Hornady Critical Defense load. I waited a couple of weeks
for them to get off back order so I could acquire two boxes. Needless to
say, I am very disappointed with the velocity results. I realize the
Hornady TRX bullet is 5 grains heavier than everything else I've tested.
However, Hornady shows a velocity, on their web site, of 1038 FPS from a 1 7/8"
S&W 351PD. While the Pug's barrel is but 1", when Hornady claims this load
is optimized for short-barreled firearms, I wouldn't expect it to literally
place at the bottom of the velocity list. Just to confirm that my numbers
were correct, I fired a second 5 shot string over the chronograph. The
average velocity of the 2nd group was just 4 FPS different than the first group.
The velocity numbers speak for themselves, it would seem.

My next step will be to do some down range testing to see how the above loads
perform. I'll have to save a few milk jugs as my budget doesn't allow for
ballistic gel....unless someone wants to donate some. <grin>

Update: 05/09/2012

We were getting a rare May later afternoon rain shower when the mailman
stuffed a few items into the mailbox. Among them was a small package from
John Losey who owns Concealment
Holster Solutions. John had cashed my check the previous week
so I had a feeling the holster was going to show up this week. Sure enough
it did.